In recent years, there has been an important commitment to the development of programs to promote mental health literacy (MHL) among adolescents, due to the prevalence of mental health problems and the low level of MHL that affects this group. The aim of this study was to map the structure and context of programmes/interventions for promoting MHL among adolescents in school settings. A scoping review was conducted following the guidelines of The Joanna Briggs Institute. We searched for studies on programmes/interventions promoting at least one of the components of MHL of adolescents, written in Portuguese, English or Spanish, published from 2013 to 2020, in MEDLINE, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, SciELO, SCOPUS, OpenGrey, RCAAP and in the article reference lists. This review included 29 articles. The majority of programmes/interventions addressed one or more of the four components of MHL, with the knowledge of mental disorders and stigma reduction components being the most covered; were taught by adolescent’s regular teachers; used face to face interventions; had a height variable duration; used non-validated instruments; were implemented in a classroom environment; and showed statistically significant improvements in adolescent’s MHL levels. More research is needed to implement/construct programmes/interventions promoting adolescents’ MHL concerning knowledge on how to obtain and maintain good mental health.

This study aimed to assess adolescents′ Mental Health Literacy (MHL) level, Positive Mental Health (PMH) level, the association between sociodemographic variables and the MHL and PMH levels, and the relationship between adolescent′s MHL and PMH levels. A quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted with a convenience sample of 260 adolescents studying in the 5th to 12th years of school. The Mental Health Knowledge Questionnaire, the Mental Health-Promoting Knowledge, and the Positive Mental Health Questionnaire were used for data collection. Most of the adolescents were female (55.8%) with a mean age of 14.07 years. The participants showed good levels of MHL (MHKQ). The participants showed good levels of MHL (MHKQ 𝘹¯ = 60.03; MHPK-10 𝘹¯ = 4.49) and high levels of PMH (𝘹¯ = 128.25). The adolescents with higher levels of MHL were the oldest, in a higher year of school, female, those whose mothers are employed, those who have healthy eating habits, and those who have a better body image self-perception. Adolescents in a lower year of school, with adequate sleep habits, who spend fewer hours a day in front of a screen or online, and who have a better self-perception of mental and physical health and body image were the ones with higher PMH levels. These findings suggest the need to implement experimental or quasi-experimental studies to ascertain the effectiveness of interventions that promote adolescents′ positive mental health literacy.

The pandemic of COVID-19 caused significant changes in economies and societies with a major impact on the entire education process. However, these changes did not invalidate a constant effort of adaptation. This cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study used an online questionnaire administered to students from various study cycles at higher education institutions in Portugal, with the aim of exploring the influence of literacy and mental health on the use of mental health promotion strategies during COVID-19 confinement. A total of 329 students from higher education institutions participated in this study, mostly from the age group 18–24 years (n = 272; 82.7%) and female (n = 265, 80.5%). The most mentioned health promotion strategies during this period included studying (n = 170; 51.7%); physical activities (n = 151, 45.9%); social networking (n = 124, 37.7%); cooking activities (n = 120, 36.5%); and listening to music (n = 118, 35.9%). Academic success is self-reported, and it is weakly correlated with the MHI5 (r = 0.103, p = 0.063). Students in the pre-graduate programs studied more during the times of the pandemic and used this activity as a mental-health-promoting strategy with a statistically significant difference (p = 0.033). Although it was difficult to improve health literacy related to COVID-19 in such a short period of time, there was a very strong motivation to access, understand, evaluate, communicate, synthesize, and apply information and knowledge to maintain mental health through self-care using health promotion strategies.